Year-Round Cuteness. In wreath form.

So, I had a pretty cool idea, if I do say so myself, for my Etsy shop:

One wreath for every holiday or occasion with interchangeable ribbons and flowers! Less storage....less money! Did someone say less storage and money? Yep...this chick did.

Only $40 bucks, yo, and you are set for the year wreath-wise!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Love,
K

I love all things inappropriate.

Good morning, Sunshine! Or, foggy and muggy, if you live in Northeast Florida. I honestly don't feel like it's Christmas unless it is cold outside. :(  No such luck here...it's like 70-somethin'. Boo.

I have to start by showing you this video that I found of Ethan when he was about 10 months old. It's slightly inappropriate, but we all know how I enjoy inappropriateness :)

I love how Ofir says "That is so wrong!"  Haha! Love it. Man, where did my little baby go? Ethan is such a big boy now!

I have decided to let his hair grow out a bit. It may or may not be because I want him to look little again, with hair "wings" and such:

Love me some hair wings. Excuse his breakfast from this morning on his shirt.

So, Tuesday was the first night of Hanukkah. So, we go to light the candles and all is going well:

And then Ethan decides to BLOW OUT the candles:

Bahaha! God bless him...

I haven't wrapped one single gift. I should get on that, huh? I still have to make some crafty stuff and fill some Etsy orders. We are headed over to my dad and Janine's tomorrow for Christmas Eve dinner. They never dissapoint with the glorious food. Oh, the glorious food. Christmas morning my mom will be headed up here from St. Augustine for a Christmas brunch! I'm making our traditional breakfast casserole. I may share that with you after the holiday. You HAVE to make it. We've made it every year since I can remember. It is a family favorite all around! :)

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday--whatever you may be celebrating!

Love,
K

Brunch, Onesies, and a treat.

I cannot believe Christmas is in SIX days. I say this every few weeks, but WHERE has the year gone? The older I get, the faster the time flies. When I was little I remember waiting, what seemed like an eternity, for holidays and birthdays to hurry up and get here. Now? I just want it to all slow down...

Yesterday I went to Casa Marina down in Jacksonville Beach for my soon to be step mom, Janine! She and my dad are getting married on the 30th--so excited! :)  We had a great bridal shower brunch. I had a lot of these:

Bottomless mimosas? Oh, I think so!

And a bunch of this:

That slightly blurry eggs benedict there on the bottom right? Oh, it just had a fried green tomato underneath it. YUM.

We played several great games that I had never heard of before. I won one of the games. I better have--it was "Who knows the bride and groom best?!" That's my Pops...I better know him! I got to take home one of the table centerpieces that Sherie made as a prize:

Gorg!

Sherie (Janine's bestie) did a great job organizing! I would post more pictures, but I want to keep them a surprise for Janine! :)

Casa Marina has a gorgeously yummy brunch buffet. I would recommend it, for sure! Slightly pricey, but for a special occasion? Yeah...go fot it!

So, I made the cute little treats I told you about for Ofir's office. I had to take a picture for you:

Santa hat brownie bites! Cute, right?

Today I am going up to campus to help with the Onesies Orientation. "Onesies" are what I lovingly refer to first term nursing students as. SO happy I am not one of those anymore. Ha! Did I tell you I am the secretary of the Student Nurse's Association? Step aside...the SECRETARY is coming through. Hahah! But, hey...hopefully it will look good to employers, no?! :) Anywho...I am going up there to help our President, Angela, out. I'll say it again--so glad I am not in first term anymore. God Bless those little onesies and what they are going to endure for the next few months. They have no idea! LOL! Ok, I'll get off my Term III high-horse and say goodbye for now!

Have a great week!!!

-K

Happy Saturday, folks!

I'm still stoked that I don't have school. Or anything I have to read. Or study. Or use my brain for. Love it.

Nothing really enchanting to talk about.

I have been really loving all of this photography that's happening lately. I've always loved it, but it's like cranked up a hundred notches these days! I took four years of Photo in high school and loved every minute of it. Glad to be all up in it's grill again.

I feel like I am taking pictures of everyone but my boy, so I shot a few this morning whilst lounging in bed with him:

My bud. Baby. Lovebug. Snuggle bunny. Pumpkin pie. Looove my sweet baby boy. He will always be my baby boy. Even when he's 50 :)  He was chatting and singing while I shot these, hence the constant state of open-ness that his mouth is exhibiting.

I found a recipe that I am going to make for Ofir's work people. Or co-workers. Or whatever you call people your husband works with. I am going to whip them up tomorrow. I'll be sure to take a picture and show you. They are fantastically cute for the Christmas season.

Speaking of season, we are going to Seasons52 tomorrow night for my brother's birthday dinner. It's relatively new out at The Town Center. The menu looks pretty freggin' good. Oh, I will be getting the Tiger Shrimp Penne Pasta, thank you very much. And since there is shrimp in it I won't have to share with the kosher hudband! Bwaahahahahahahahahah! Yes...I do plan these things out sometimes ;)

I was at my moms yesterday, baking away. We made three types of biscotti! They are all equally as good. This is our 5th year making them for ourselves to give to friends. Had the best time--dancing and singing like Aretha Franklin! Aretha wishes she could hit the notes I hit...

Just wanted to swing by and say Hi!

Have a marvelous rest of the weekend!

-K

A camera, best friends, and the middle of nowhere.

I say "middle of nowhere" but it was actually right down the street. It just felt like the middle of nowhere. It was awesome. It's a nature preserve and it's gorgeous. Who knew there was still some land that hasn't been over-run by buildings and parking lots here in Jacksonville?

Back to the camera and best friends part of the story.

You all have heard the name Rachel time and time again on here. Yes, I talk about her a lot, but she is, after all, my nearest and dearest friend. We have been besties for 24 years! She's a part of my family and I love her:

She's all "It's hard to look at my face so close up." But, how could one not say "Damn, I look pretty good!?" in these pictures.

And these are just a handful of the 6 trillion perfect pictures she gave me. I would say we pulled it off pretty freggin' sucessfully. We had the best time. Laughing, being creative, chasing the light, falling in turtle holes, getting bitten by bugs, scraping up our legs, and dodging flying bats one foot from our faces.

Speaking of turtle holes. I fell into, what Rachel describes as, a turtle hole. She didn't even hear me fall--it was a "silent fall." Haha! She was all "Oh my gosh, are you OK?!" And I was all "Oh my gosh...my camera! Check my lens...is there sand in it? I can't bare to look!" Luckily the lens was sand-free and we went on our merry ways.

Here is the carnage:

I was lucky to have survived...

Damn turtle hole. It was big, I swear.

At one point, I wanted to see what blonde hair looked like with the backlight, so Rach snagged a picture of me:

Kinda cool...looks like I am on fire. I am happy to report that I was not on fire.

We will be doing MANY more shoots in the future. Not to sound like a broken record, but we had a blast!

Love my best friend. Hope you are lucky enough to have one of these in your life too. They are kind of amazing.

Have a great rest of the week!

Love,
K

Pizza and Photoshoots.

First, hello new followers :)

Second, I finished Term II of nursing school today. Half way done, people! And now? Oh, I get almost an entire month off! So happy. And kinda proud of myself. The hubs, offspring, and I indulged in a celebratory pizza night out! Mmm! I love finding an excuse to eat pizza. Excuse this time was getting an "A" in Adult Health I. Whew!

Now that my nose isn't shoved into books, I can take a moment to show you what's been going on. I mentioned before that I was doing a newborn photoshoot last week. Poor M was irritated with Rach and I (Have I mentioned how much my best friend rocks? Not only is she just plain-'ol awesome, but she is a great photoshoot helper!). He was 10 days old and snuggly-able. Yeah, I made that up. And what?  Here's a few we managed to muster out:

He's gorgeous, no?

Even with a bit of this:

We got some half-grins :)

Such a sweet boy. Love his momma too! Thanks Ash for letting me torture photograph your precious boy!

This week? Oh, I'm just lined up to take pictures of gorgeous said best friend. In a field. With hopefully amazing lighting. Just for fun. Can't wait. That is all.

Another thing I can't wait for is a second dose of Twilight! I saw it a few weeks ago and I am going again on Thursday with some nursing school lovies. SUCH a good movie :)

I forgot to show you guys my Thanksgiving table setting. I thought it was super duper cute, yet I neglected to show anyone. Here:

I'm off to do absolutely nothing this evening. Damn, that sounds good!

Love!

-K

Hodge Podge-ness.

First of all, I am diggin' yet another Adele song. Listen to this bad boy:

Your ears will thank you.

Gosh, she's down-right amazing. I heard this song at my friend, Laura's house today and I came straight home, found it on YouTuber's and can't stop hitting repeat ;)  Enjoy!

Speaking of Laura, she leant me a ton of props for a NEWBORN photoshoot I am doing Saturday. We all know I am not a professional photographer and everyone has their "firsts." This will be my first baby shoot! My friend Ashley had her precious baby boy about a week ago and I am sooo looking forward to getting my hands (clean, of course ;-D) on him! My best friend, Rach, is helping me again. She helped me on my last photoshoot too. She is a NICU nurse and is probably the best person I could think of to help me. Sister knows babies. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!

One more test for term II nursing school on Monday! It's the bad boy big final test too. I will be happy when this one is over. Creeping up on being 1/2 way done, folks! Woo! SO ready to move on to OB and Peds in term III!

I think we have decided to go to Israel when I graduate in August as a Thank-God-That-Is-Over-With trip. I will need to borrow someone's Xanax for the plane ride. Please and thank you. Heinous plane ride aside, I am super excited! It's one of those magical, super special places on Earth that I can't pass up visiting. It helps that my husband is from there--he can show me the ropes, yo. :)  I am looking forward to meeting his dad too! Oh, and falafel. Not just any falafel. Falafel from Israel. Score!

Just wanted to drop in and say Hi! Have a marvelous rest of the week. I need to go study for that ghastly black-cloud-hanging-over-my-head of a final.

-K

P.S. Don't forget about the giveaway on Girl Loves Glam!

Another Giveaway!

Howdy folks!

I am happy to say that I had another Etsier/fellow blogger/sweet girl reach out to me about a possible giveaway for her readers! Go check out McKenzie over at Girl Loves Glam and enter the giveaway for a chance to win the Gardenia Headband that I offer in my shop. Free stuff, people...free stuff! She has such a great blog and she is just too nice not to go give her a look. Be sure to follow her blog too! She has some awesome tutorials and fashion tips :)

Here's what McKenzie says about how to enter:

Be sure to leave a SEPARATE comment for each way you enter AND include your email address on each comment! Here is how you enter…

**Mandatory** 1 entry- Follow Girl Loves Glam

1 entry- Go to the nu and boo shop and tell me what your favorite item is!

1 entry- Follow the Kristina’s cute blog!

1 entry- “like” Girl Loves Glam on Facebook

2 entries- Share this giveaway on Facebook, Twitter, or blog (2 entries for each way)

5 entries- Make a purchase from nu and boo!

This giveaway ends on December 12th! Good luck!

You know you want one. Soooo...GO AND ENTER!

Have a fabulous week!

-K

Chrismakuh is around the corner!

If you are new here, Chrismakuh (I am very proud to say I made up that word. All on my own.) is Christmas and Hannukah. Creative, I know. We celebrate both in this house :)

I have been MIA for a week. School has run me dry and squeezed every bit of energy out of me this past week. Two very important tests are coming up and I loathe the pressure it puts on me. SO...I decided to take a break from it all and start decorating for Chrismakuh!

I will say that I am lousy at decorating an entire house. I focus on the mantle and that's about it. I am not a crazy holiday over-decorator. I did not get that gene from my mom. She is a wild wild decorator for holidays. That woman can embellish the hell out of a house! Love that about her.

Anyways, back to my lazy minimalistic approach on decorating. Here's our mantle this year:

Like last year, I mixed different textures. I like the rustic feel. I already had everything, so I am happy to say that my mantle cost me $0 this year. Woo!  I made a quick little pennant banner and tossed it on an empty frame, threw some candles in some Mason jars, plopped some ornaments in a wooden bowl and that's about it. I know you enjoy all of my lovely verbs--tossed, plopped, threw, etc. See? I knew you did.

Since my child is two and likes to pull at anything...I decided to move the stockings away from the mantle this year. I hung them from our china cabinet in the kitchen--safe and out of the way from prodding little hands! The stockings say (from left to right) "Dad", "Ethan" and "Mom." :) Those are about the only words I know how to write, besides my name, in Hebrew. I am really kickin' butt with this second language thing, let me tell you... ;)

Back to the school grind. Just wanted to stop in and say Hi and wish you a great week!

-K

Happenings of the week.

Happy Saturday, ya'll!

Who braved Black Friday? I kinda did. Sort of. We went at 4:00 p.m. instead of 4:00 a.m. like some loonies (Sorry if you are one of them!). We still got some great deals up at The Town Center and didn't get shot or pepper-sprayed, like some news stories I saw. I'm gonna need you to not pull out your gun for that X-box. Thanks.

Today we went down to the outlets. Really just to get out of the house and walk around. We snagged some more good deals. No shooting involved :)

Let's rewind to Wednesday. Remember when I talked about taking pictures for a friend and hoping they came out well? Well, I'd say we had a successful shoot. Alanna and Krystal were gorgeous gorgeous girls and Kevin and Renee went with the flow and were awesome! Couldn't have asked for better people to shoot (with a camera, not guns...). Take a little look:

Yeah, great lookin' bunch of people. Loved every second! If you want to see them all, you can visit my Facebook page. I made that album public, so you should be able to see them all. If you get a wild hunch...friend me. I'll accept you, I promise ;)

My bestest friend, Rachel came along for the ride and did a great job of capturing a few great shots of her own and helping me figure out the best places to take the pictures and best lighting, etc. She was a great subject for me to test my lighting, by the way:

She's purdy, aint she? :-D

She also did a marvelous job of capturing some behind-the-scenes of the shoot:

That middle one makes me laugh. I was all up in their grill! :)

So, fast forward to Friday again. Instead of shopping in the early part of the day, we headed out to the beach for a picnic and some running around:

I am usually that mom that worries about her child's clothes getting dirty or wet and I obsess over runny noses and dirty hands. Yesterday though? Nah...go in the water with your clothes on if you want, Bud. Don't worry about getting your pants wet or your shirt covered in sand! We let loose and said "Who cares about that runny nose?!" It was one of the days. And it was great to not care. Sometimes you just gotta let it go and relax. I had to remind myself of that a few times. I caught myself reaching for the sand-covered orange that was about to be shoved into my little man's mouth...but Nah...it was one of those days :)

Check out our fabulous, most cutest picnic basket on the planet! Given to me for my birthday, by none other than my Rachey:

She would find a gorgeous, monogrammed picnic basket for me! Love.

We had a marvelous Thanksgiving feast at my dad's on Thursday! It was so yummy and I am proud to say that I didn't stuff myself. I hate stuffing myself and being uncomfortable, so I refrained :)  Such great company!

Tomorrow I am hosting a Thanksgiving feast here for my mom and brother. Ofir and I have a few recipes up our sleeves! My mom has some great one's lined up too! My brother? Well, he had no choice but to make his famous mashed potatoes. BEST on the planet. No lie.

Don't you love how this post was so non-sequential and completely out of order?! I do hope you were able to follow along :)

Have a great rest of the weekend!!

-K

Salmagundi.

If you are lost and have no idea what Salmagundi means, here is an explanation for you.

Now that we have that straightened out, we can move on. :)

Happy Tuesday!

I do not have anything particularly captivating to talk about today.

My son has a fever. Hate fevers. They scare me. Hopefully it keeps going down and stays away!

While he is/was napping, I whipped up a cute cute cute cupcake design for my husband's work group. Take a look:

Adorable, no?

I saw these somewhere. Either on someone's random blog or Pinterest! Oh, Pinterest...you are so good at sucking me in and wasting copious amounts of my time browsing you.

Anywho, hopefully they like them and they are yummy!

***

I am taking some pictures of a friend, her boyfriend and his kiddlies tomorrow at a lovely park here in Jacksonville. Hopefully I get a few decent shots.

I just said hopefully twice in three sentences. I am a worry-wart.

Oh WAIT...I said it up at the top too--about the fever.

Hopefully I can get better at that ;)

***

In case you didn't see on my Facebook page yesterday...my child decided to remove his dirty diaper and play paint time on his crib, walls and carpet. Ask me if my morning was awesome. You bet...!

***

I had a dream last night that I was pregnant. I had the baby and it was a lion cub. Umm...OK?! Someone please tell me what the symbolism in that dream is! Weird...

***

In 3 days, I have sold 4 of the same Christmas wreath! I could make that thing in my sleep! Keep 'em comin', people! ;)

Hope you have a great rest of the day!

-K